Reluctant Witnesses Go To Court

Suspects Face Trial In East End Shooting

February 23, 1995|By BEVERLY N. WILLIAMS Daily Press

NEWPORT NEWS — The preliminary hearing for Newport News' two most-wanted criminals got under way Wednesday - amid the spectacle of police cameras and witnesses being escorted into court by armed police officers.

If the hearing had not taken place, there was a chance that Nathaniel ``Na-Na'' Dunlap and Damion L. ``Chuck'' Pruden could have been set free.

The pair is accused of unleashing a barrage of gunfire Aug. 18 on two men they suspected had shot a child moments earlier. Dunlap faced 13 felony charges in the incident. Pruden faced 10 felony charges.

Last month, when the hearing had to be postponed because some witnesses refused to show up for court or to testify, Newport News General District Judge Joan T. Morris threatened to dismiss the charges.

But Wednesday, the witnesses came forward and told what they knew about the shooting, in the 900 block of 15th Street. The shooting occurred moments after 5-year-old Andre Grady had been shot in a drive-by shooting a block away.

Now, the cases against Dunlap and Pruden, which involve a multitude of maiming and firearms charges, will go to trial.

The trial for Dunlap, who also faces felony drug charges, is set for April 17, Pruden's for April 26.

The second-floor lobby was cleared by police as two witnesses were escorted into the courtroom. Prosecutors also asked members of the news media to not photograph or use the witnesses' names because they feared for their safety.

When Dunlap was brought into court by sheriff's deputies, he wore a smirk. Pruden looked sullen. Both wore bright-orange city jail jumpsuits.

Several police officers, in uniform and plainclothes, sat in the courtroom audience, while others stood around in the second-floor lobby. Two other officers, one inside the courtroom and one in the lobby, videotaped and photographed all who entered or left.

The extra security was part of the Police Department's new initiative to offer better protection for witnesses in high-profile cases. The program was started after witnesses in such cases refused to come forward because they feared for their lives.

The first witness to testify spoke of that fear. He said that although he was in the 900 block of 20th Street when the shooting erupted, fear kept him from telling police that Pruden and Dunlap were the gunmen.

``I live in the East End and I knew some crazy stuff went on down there,'' he said. ``I was afraid if I said something, someone would rob me, shoot me or kill me.''

But that same fear, he said, is what eventually pushed him to come forward and testify.

While most of the charges against Pruden and Dunlap were certified to Circuit Court, prosecutors were forced to drop others.

In one case, charges against the pair were dropped after prosecutors learned the witness in the case had moved out of state.

Newport News Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Owen Ashman told Morris the witness could be brought back to testify, but the judge refused to postpone the case. She then admonished the commonwealth's attorney's office for failing to locate the witness sooner.

The judge also dismissed four similar charges after one of the victims in the Aug. 18 shooting did not testify. Ashman told Morris the man was not called because other witnesses had placed him at the scene.

But defense attorneys David B. Olson and Lawrence L. Lipka argued the charges should be dismissed because their clients were being denied the right to face their accuser.

Prosecutors also dropped two other maiming charges and a charge of illegal use of a firearm in connection with the Aug. 18 shooting, but offered no explanation for the action.

Other charges Morris dismissed against Dunlap included assault, battery and possession of a handgun by a felon. The charges were not related to the Aug. 18 shooting.

Unrelated robbery and firearms charges against Pruden were also dropped, but the judge did convict him and Dunlap of misdemeanor charges for damaging two cars that were hit by bullets in the shootout. She sentenced them each to nine months in jail with three months suspended and ordered them to pay $900 restitution.

Morris also convicted Dunlap of trespassing and fined him $25. The charge stemmed from an incident last year in which Dunlap was loitering in a car in the Marshal Courts Apartments parking lot in the 700 block of 36th Street.

In that incident, Dunlap was also charged with felony drug possession after police found two pounds of marijuana in his car. Morris certified that charged to the grand jury March 13.